Big news for fans of my 24 hour comics (in case you don’t already know, I am the World Record Holder in meeting the challenge devised by Scott McCloud, to produce an entire 24 page comic book in a single day– I have done 16 of these one-day epics so far). Plans are in the works for a second collection, titled SLEEPLESS AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 2, to be published next year by Dark Horse (the first Dark Horse collection, EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! AND OTHER STORIES: DAVID CHELSEA’S 24-HOUR COMICS, VOL. 1, came out in 2013).
David Chelsea is reading: It Never Happened Again: Two Stories
by Sam Alden
Like the first, this book collects six 24 page stories, each drawn in a single session lasting around 24 hours (Six Days In The Making– Just Like Creation!). In chronological order, the stories are:
1. SNOW ANGEL: the original 24 hour comic version. I later reworked this story about a little girl who becomes a crime-fighting angel when she makes an angel in snow, and added color to it for the version which ran in Dark Horse Presents, which later became its own one-shot comic book. I am now at work on a book-length collection of stories about this character.
2. SLEEPLESS: A story told entirely through the eyes of a character who can’t sleep. Comics reviewer Henry Chamberlain called it “the best 24 hour comic I’ve ever read” (I don’t know how many of my OTHER 24 hour comics he has read).
3. ID: A woman has her identity stolen by a mysterious tormentor. Featuring an all-animal cast, until I changed my mind halfway through the story and made them all humans.
4. NOW OPEN THE BOX: A married couple receive a mysterious package, which they must hide from their young son. Drawn entirely on isometric grid paper.
5. THE GIRL WITH THE KEYHOLE EYES: Drawn as a benefit for, and as something of an homage to ZAP cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, this series of reminiscences about various women I’ve known (mostly NOT old girlfriends), mixes real stories with outright fabrications, all centered on the eponymous “girl”, who is variously described as an old roommate, a character in a video game, a cartoonist colleague, my grandmother, and a Courtney Love look-like. It ends with a real groaner of a pun. This story was also eventually redrawn for Dark Horse Presents.
6. I LIKE TO RIFF: This comic is something of a victory lap, both for myself and for any reader who has made through all the previous 24 hour comics. I constructed the story by putting the names of the eleven previous comics in a sack and drawing one out at random every two hours. See if you can spot all of them!
Publication is planned for February 2016. I will definitely be blogging more about this book and the stories in it as that date approaches.
Do you have my first 24 hour comic collection, EVERYBODY GETS IT WRONG! AND OTHER STORIES? Buy it now!
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